Virtual Regeneration

True Entrepreneurship

I get a kick out of hearing about new businesses starting up and those that have an entrepreneur heart.  A friend of mine sent me an email about her daughter.  Keep in mind, she is only 7 1/2 years old.

"Jason and I are so proud of Bethany. On Saturday, she wanted to put up a stand in front of the house. Jason was working on the house, and I was at a yard sale, so Bethany came up with an idea and set it all up herself. She decided to sell balloon animals/ hats for 25 cents each.  Nannie and Papaw had given Bethany a kit with balloons and a pump. After blowing up the ballon, she would ask the customer to tie it for her. The business was quite successful, due in part to her outfit (bright tie-dye shirt and balloon hat), her personality (waving, smiling, conversing with people and saying, "Tell your friends!") , and also because there was a wedding at the church across from our house. The groomsmen were Bethany's best customers. She made them all balloon hats, and they wore them into the church!
In about 4 hours time, Bethany made a bit over $10, and has plans to set up a stand for many Saturdays during the rest of the summer!"

So, what is your excuse for not starting a business of your own?

Changes to Michigan Child Seat Laws

As posted on Meijer.com, effective July 1st, 2008, Michigan law will require that all children under the age of 8 and shorter than 4'9" tall need be in a child safety seat.

For more information visit www.nhtsa.gov

So you think you can sub?

I am excited to announce that Adonai Business Solutions, LLC will be participating in the first ever job fair for VAs looking to become sub-contractors to other VAs - "The VAs VA" if you will. 

This is a growing trend in the Virtual Assistant industry, one that I am very thankful for.  If it were not for the team of VAs that make up Team Adonai, we would not be able to service the clients that we do. 

For more information on "So you think you can sub" visit www.soyouthinkyoucansub.com
 

ABS Launched New eBook & Affiliate Program

Whether you are a brand new or a  “seasoned” VA,  the systems contained in this eBook will give you the tools needed to ensure you are the one running your business instead of your business running you!

This eBook is chock full of visuals, step by step directions, templates and added resources to guide you in creating systems that are unique to your VA practice. Generic template forms are included to help you fill in the gaps. 

By the time you are done, just print out the forms and you will be ready to roll!  You will not only have your systems documented, you will gain a better understanding of how your business is running, what systems need to be tweaked, and even what to outsource yourself – now isn’t that a novel idea!

The systems outlined in this book include:

• Business Leads
• New Clients
• Current Clients
• Letting a Client Go
• Sample Internal Processes

As an added bonus, you will also get the flow charts used for running a multi-VA practice, including managing VA Associates!

To order your copy, please visit http://www.adonaibusinesssolutions.com/Products.html

To sign up to be an affiliate and earn 40% of each product you promote, please visit www.adonaibusinesssolutions.com and click on the affiliate link at the bottom of the page.

Service thats first rate...All done while-u-wait

Now that is a catchy tag line. 

In my line of work, I am constantly meeting all kids of people.  Yesterday, I had the opportunity to talk with a fellow VA, who by the way will be celebrating her 23rd year as a virtual service provider at the end of this month (see, this industry isnt as new as some think).

That is the tag line Marian uses to describe her niche'.  Marian has found a way to provide a service to her clients, all while she is talking to them on the phone, or in some cases, in person.  What is that service?  Resume' writting - and she is considered an expert at doing it.

Here is what transpired in our conversation:

How long have you worked in a VA capacity?  Nearly 23 years (I opened the business on June 25, 1985)

What has changed in our industry over the 23 years you have been involved? Technology has played a huge impact.  In the 80’s, most of my work had to be done “in-person” and therefore local, where as now I have had clients literally located all over the world. 

How has Resume’ Writing changed over the years?  Again, the technology has changed and the actual layouts of the resume of themselves.  Once upon a time you would have submitted your resume’ and would have been competing with your neighbors, now you are competing on a global market because of such sites as Monster.com and Workopolis.com. 

How has working virtual impacted your life? I find that I have more freedom, as I am home based.  I can transition from work to personal life very easily because of this.

What is your specialty?  “Making my clients shine on paper” by ensuring that their word processing and correspondence are letter-perfect and grammatically correct

What is/are your best quality/ies?

• I am dependable and provide stellar customer service; e.g., my business placed 2nd (out of 500) in a professional membership customer service survey.
• I provide super-fast turnaround without sacrificing my commitment to producing top-notch work; e.g., when I was a Public Relations Secretary at the beginning of my career, I performed all of my assigned duties - with time to spare.  When I was promoted, 2 full-time secretaries and 1 part-time admin. assistant had to cope with a reduced workload - and still had trouble meeting deadlines.
• I can solve problems and brainstorm effective win/win solutions; e.g., in 1997, I co-introduced a 24-hour cancellation policy because I experienced 275 insufficient-notice cancellations in 1996.  As a result, my cancellations in 1997 dropped by 97% to only 7 for the entire year.
  

Best advice to new VAs just starting out? 

• Form sincere and genuine alliances with other VA's so that you have someone to turn to when facing a VA-specific concern.  The right way to do it:  Ask if you can help them with their workload.  The wrong way to do it:   Tell them that you want to steal their customers away.  (Note:  One VA-wannabe actually admitted this to me!)  
• Join a VA association and sign up with their e-list.  I've learned some priceless tid-bits from both the Canadian Virtual Assistants Network (CVAN) and the Canadian Virtual Assistants Connection (CVAC).
• Participate in teleclasses.  In addition to the appealing and highly-relevant topics offered in teleclasses, bask in the energy and motivation  that is sure to envelop you and keep you jazzed for a long time to come. 

Best advice to business owners thinking about working with a VA for the first time?  Conduct a Google search, access the Virtual Assistant member web-sites, and acquaint yourself with the myriad of talents that each VA can offer.

Hobbies/Interests?  50's / 60's / 70's (et. al) music (I am an admitted Top 40 geek and could easily be the next Rick Dees!), cooking, bargain hunting, eBaying, finance conservation, personal and professional development

Volunteer/Charities?  I’ve volunteered with Girl Guides of Canada (similar to Girl Scouts) since the Fall of 1996:
… 1996 – 2000:  Brownie Leader (girls in Grades 2 and 3)
… 2000 – 2004:  Spark (equivalent to “Daisy”) Leader (girls in Senior Kindergarten and Grade 1)
… 2003 – present:  Cookie Sales Coordinator

Is there anything else you would like to tell us about yourself?  Along the way, I developed a passion for writing resumes, preparing clients to ace the interview, and wishing success for my job-seeking clients.  As a result of becoming the Province of Ontario’s first Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW) and 1 of only 8 Certified Employment Interview Professionals (CEIP) in Canada, I take pride in the fact that (i) samples of my work are published in 3 resume-writing primers and (ii) I sport a 97% success rate in terms of my clients landing interviews.   Ultimately, I LOVE what I do for a living!

To contact Marian -

The Regency Group (d.b.a. Regency Secretarial) - a subsidiary of 6429432 Canada Inc.
Aurora, Ontario, Canada ... Aurora is 30 minutes north of Toronto

905-841-7120 / FAX 905-841-1391 / www.resumeexpert.ca
 
* Ontario's first Certified Professional Resume Writer
* 1 of only 8 Certified Employment Interview Professionals in Canada
 
* Proudly affiliated with:
   ... PARW/CC, CMI, and CPC (resume associations)
   ... CVAN and CVAC (virtual assistant associations)
   ... Aurora-Business.com, the Aurora Chamber of Commerce, and Girl Guides of Canada
 
* Contributor to the following resume books:
   ... *Expert Resumes for Managers and Executives*
   ... *Gallery of Best Resumes for People Without a Four-Year Degree*
   ... *Best Canadian Resumes*

Re-Defining Virtual Assistants

Yesterday I had the privilage of attending a telesimar hosted by CVAN titled How to Become an Invaluable Virtual Assistant To Coaches.  Since several of my clients happen to be Coaches, I thought this would be the ideal class for me to listen in on.

What I took from the class was far more than I could have ever anticipated.  Entrepreneur, author, and business advisor to independent professionals, Milana Leshinsky was the guest speaker.  Milana spoke on her struggles finding qualified Virtual Assistants (VAs) to support her growing coaching practice.  What she found was that many of the VAs she came into contact with were stuck in the "administrative" mind set and were task driven.  Milana needed her VA to have more of an entrepreneurial spirit, and be more of a Virtual Business Manager.

The minute I heard her say that - all sorts of light bulbs went off.  Thats it!  Virtual Business Manager. Its so simple, yet clearly defines what I am to my clients.  My clients count on me to be pro-active, to take a role in their businesses that is more strategic than administrative.  Sure, I provide the means to getting the tasks done, but I also give my clients much more.

To hear what Milana had to say and to get a better understanding of what a Virtual Business Manager can do for you and your business, follow the link below.  Trust me, it will be worth your time. (Note - it is a rather large file, so may take a few minutes to download)      

Download send-your-va-to-school-working-with-coaches-compr.mp3

Three Ways to be More Strategic, Less Tactical – part 4 of 4

Strategy versus Tactical, continued..... by Michael Bungay Stainer

3. Start saying no.

Quite possible my favourite coaching question is this one:

If you say Yes to this, what are you saying No to?

Its power lies in the fact that it makes explicit the choices that are being made.  And stops people just saying Yes, one of the curses of modern business.

Michael Bungay Stanier is a professional keynote speaker, the author of the best selling coaching tool, Get Unstuck & Get Going ...on the stuff that mattersand the creator of Eight Irresistible Principles of Fun and The 5.75 Questions You've Been Avoiding. A certified coach and Rhodes Scholar, he works with teams and organizations to help them do less Good Work and more Great Work.

Three Ways to be More Strategic, Less Tactical – part 3 of 4

Strategy versus Tactical, continued..... by Michael Bungay Stainer

2. Work out who matters.

In most strategic conversations, the focus is on collating and shaping the tasks - adding a little here, pruning a little there.

Which makes many of these conversations less about strategy and more about task-shuffling.

Start with a different conversation.  Start with: Who matters?

In fact, as you become more senior in an organization, you start to realise that this is one of the critical conversations.  It comes about because seniority means gaining influence ... but  also, as you're no longer doing it all, losing control.  And your influence lies in the invisible web of relationships you have.  Your ability to be strategic is entangled with people and only then played out by completing tasks.

You can't be everything to everyone.  In fact, to be effective you've got to start making some choices about what you'll be to whom.

So stop the doing for a moment.  And turn your attention to the interacting.

Action step:
Who are the three internal people who matter most? 
What do they want?  What does that tell you?
Who are the three external people (or groups of people) who matter most?  What do they want?  What does that tell you?

A useful resource: 
Get Them On Your Side by Samuel Bacharach is a great
little book one of my readers recommended to me.  As the title suggests, it helps you get a little smarter about who you need to build relationships with - and how to go about it.  It presents a number of core strategies that will work with a range of different sorts of people.

An alternative resource:
Find the person in your organization who you think is the savviest, who has the best people relationships.  Look broadly:  it may well be the guy on the front desk or it might be the VP of Sales - or anyone in between.  They know who matters and why.  Take them out for a coffee, tell them what you're trying to achieve, and ask them:  Who do you think I should get to know?

Watch for Tomorrows post on Step 3: Start Saying No

Michael Bungay Stanier is a professional keynote speaker, the author of the best selling coaching tool, Get Unstuck & Get Going ...on the stuff that mattersand the creator of Eight Irresistible Principles of Fun and The 5.75 Questions You've Been Avoiding. A certified coach and Rhodes Scholar, he works with teams and organizations to help them do less Good Work and more Great Work.

Three Ways to be More Strategic, Less Tactical – part 2 of 4

Strategy versus Tactical, continued..... by Michael Bungay Stainer

Step 1. Create a picture.

I've found attempts to "get strategic" get lost down two different pathways.

The first is the way of the abstract pontification, high level 'blah blah blah' that everyone can nod their head to but few people are willing to pin down to meaning anything.

Or alternatively, there's the pathway of minutiae, when an attempt to imagine the future gets confused with actually predicting the future and needs 100 or so slides to cover all the (largely erroneous and
irrelevant) detail.

To keep from straying, it helps to realise that strategic thinking is a different type of thinking, a visual form of thinking.  (That's one of the reasons why people who are dyslexic are over-represented in
the realm of successful entrepreneurs and leaders.  Their need to understand information in a different way helps them to literally see a different picture and forces them to be strategic).

Action step
Create a vision of what you (and your team) are trying to achieve.  Not a bunch of words labelled vision.  But an actual vision.  Find 10 pictures that sum up where you're heading and what success looks like (draw your own; rip them out of magazines; find them on a picture library like iStockPhoto.com).  Then reduce them down to the five that are the most powerful.

Then think (and talk and draw and...):  What are the three most important things we can be doing to help get us to this vision?

A useful resource:
Find Your Great Work:  Napkin-size solutions to stop the busywork and start the work that matters. 

Coming in September, this book is all about creating pictures
to help you get a new perspective on what matters. 

An alternative resource:
If you're looking for inspiration to get visual, then Presentation Zen  is full of brilliant tips, tricks and role models for more powerful presenting skills.

Watch for tomorrows post on Step 2: Work Out Who Matters

Michael Bungay Stanier is a professional keynote speaker, the author of the best selling coaching tool, Get Unstuck & Get Going ...on the stuff that matters and the creator of Eight Irresistible Principles of Fun and The 5.75 Questions You've Been Avoiding. A certified coach and Rhodes Scholar, he works with teams and organizations to help them do less Good Work and more Great Work.

Three Ways to be More Strategic, Less Tactical – part 1 of 4

Strategy versus Tactical by Michael Bungay Stainer

A 2002 Harvard Business Review article, "Beware the Busy Manager" suggests that only 10% of us have the right combination of focus and energy that stops us wasting our time with "busy work" and keeps us in the sweet spot of the work that matters.

It's a challenge that's getting harder rather than easier, as our work life speeds up, we assume greater responsibility and things get more complex.

So how do you deal with this?

Get strategic.  And then stay strategic.

Definitions

But what does "strategy" actually mean?  I suspect it's one of those words that gets bandied about a lot without meaning very much, another corporate "weasel word" that contributes to long meetings, vague documents and people working very hard on the wrong
things.

So here are three definitions I like and occasionally use.  I'd consider them to be both true and not the whole truth:

==> Our best guess at the future

==> What matters

==> What we say No to

(I'm sure there are alternative definitions - share yours on the blog here)

Easy to write.  Easy to say.

And hard to start, yet alone maintain.

Stay tuned for the three ways of approaching strategy that reflect the three definitions above - and may open up some new opportunities for you.

Michael Bungay Stanier is a professional keynote speaker, the author of the best selling coaching tool, Get Unstuck & Get Going ...on the stuff that matters and the creator of Eight Irresistible Principles of Fun and The 5.75 Questions You've Been Avoiding. A certified coach and Rhodes Scholar, he works with teams and organizations to help them do less Good Work and more Great Work.